Kompany forecasts an ‘incredible’ 2014

City travel to Swansea on New Year’s Day looking to rack up an 11th win in 12 games.

However, it’s fair to say that the Liberty Stadium hasn’t been the happiest of hunting grounds for City since Michael Laudrup’s men were promoted to the Premier League in 2011.

The Blues have taken just one point from their two visits to South Wales and are yet to score a goal there but the City captain believes that the team can carry the momentum from their gritty win over Crystal Palace to kick off 2014 in style.

Wins for Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Manchester United and Spurs last weekend mean that there are just eight points separating the top seven, setting up the potential of a title race that could be the league’s most exciting and open in recent years.

City can go back to the top of the Premier League, for a few hours at least, with a win in Wales but Vincent Kompany revealed that he doesn’t spend too much time studying league tables at this stage of the season.

"Being top is important but in a way it doesn't mean too much yet,” Kompany argued.

“We've put ourselves in a nice position for the second half of the season but ultimately it feels like we've played so many games but we arrive in January and there's actually still not much between all the teams.

“It's been an intense first half of the season and if the second half is as intense and as good, then we'll be looking at an incredible season.”

...Vincent Kompany...

One of the domineering features of this most equitable first half of the Premier League is that any team can come unstuck anywhere, as City have learned to their cost at the Stadium of Light, the Cardiff City Stadium and Villa Park.

Kompany has a theory on why this happens more in England than in the rest of Europe but is positive that his team can another slip-up on Wednesday.

"I still think the league is as tough as it's ever been and that's probably due to the new broadcasting resources,” Vincent asserted.

“I think that's reflected in the strength in depth of all of the teams. As much as there are differences in the purchases between the top teams and the lesser teams, the lesser teams have still got incredible resources compared to other European leagues.

“That creates so much attraction towards the Premier League, and that's what you've seen at the beginning of the season, teams struggling to cope with the competitiveness of the league, and maybe that's why the top teams dropped points earlier in the season.

“But now we're on course, but to say that it will be like this all season, there is no guarantee.”

...Vincent Kompany...

Although there was a paucity in entertainment on Saturday, City’s narrow victory over Crystal Palace showed the league in its best light and was compelling evidence to back up Vincent’s point.

"It's a massive win, I don't know if you saw but I think most of the players were as happy with this win as they were with the one against Liverpool,” the Belgian defender declared.

“It's a tricky period, a turnaround in 48 hours - it's six points in 48 hours, which is a great boost.

"I wouldn't say we won ugly. I just think we ground it out against a team that was really well organised."

...Vincent Kompany...

"Credit to Palace, I was very impressed with the way they set up against us, they just seemed to match us in the important moments in the last seconds of us maybe scoring a goal.

“They seemed to be in the right position and that's all credit to them. But I think we did the right thing by not giving them any chance to come into the game too much, even though Joe had to made a couple of good saves."

We’ll have full text and audio coverage in our Match Day Centre from the Liberty Stadium here on mcfc.co.uk, as well as post-match reaction and highlights after the game.